Catching up blog

Very windy weather has kept us from posting for the past couple of days as I didn't want to put up the MotoSat under those conditions.

On Friday, we left Bakersfield early as the weather was predicting very strong Santa Anna winds (they were correct). We got over the Tehachapi's in nothing flat it seemed and made it past Yermo before the winds picked up strength. By the time we got to Needles, we were ready to pull it in. We decided to spend two nights in Needles what with the anticipated winds. Boy, oh boy, did the wind blow as the day progressed. So much so, that last night we lost power in all of Needles for at least 5 hours. We've always known that Needles is the most expensive place to buy fuel but they have outdone themselves. Usually, you can expect to pay 50 cents more than anywhere else. We paid $3.24 for diesel in Yermo. The cheapest diesel we found in Needles was $3.99 with most other stations charging $4.23. Legal extortion. We weren't going to pay their prices so we took the short drive to Bullhead City and paid $2.36 a gallon for diesel.

When we left Needles this morning, we were hoping to be able to stay at Buckskin Mountain State Park just north of Parker, AZ. However, they had no sites suited for our size that wouldn't give me tree trouble for the satellite plus an inconsiderate motorhome driver had an aisle blocked while unhooking their car so we we couldn't get to the other two loops. We gave up and decided to drive on to Quartzsite . . . free camping!

We picked out our spot and set up. Soon we were sitting outside enjoying the warm sunshine. Ah, the life. We are at Quartzsite about a week sooner than last year so the number of rigs on the BLM grounds aren't as many but they were coming in all afternoon. Not sure when the big Tent show is set to start; I'll have to check that out later. John and I took a walk out to the farthest reaches of the Hi Jolly campground. No other Excel's to be found.